YuvaJyothi – Care and Support Centre for Children On the Street

Located at Martin Nagar, Jaripatka, north of Nagpur city, the YuvaJyothi Care and Support Centre is a home away from home for children who experience disadvantage. Over 700 children have accessed the YuvaJyothi since it opened in 2003. These children are predominantly from the street and railway platform.  Children staying at YuvaJyothi are provided with constant care in an environment where they can interact with their peers and community elders.

YuvaJyothi provides:

• Accommodation
• food
• clothing
• hygiene facilities
• health care
• counseling
• family mediation and reunion
• access to education
• non-formal educational programs including life skills programs
• holiday programs and events and recreational activities
• vocational guidance
• livelihood opportunities
• referral support

Asha: Resource Centre for children, youth and women

Located at Hazaripahad, this program provides informal education and capacity building for children living in the slum areas through access to library and life skill education.  The library has story books, books on general knowledge, history, spoken English, child care, personality development and hobbies. This program also provides livelihood opportunities through training in stitching clothes for disadvantaged young women from nearby communities.

Deepshika: Resource Centre for children, youth and women

Located at Tulsi Nagar, near the dumping yard in LakkadGanj zone of Nagpur city. This program provides life skills education for over 100 adolescent girls and young people.

It provides:

• education on personal and family hygiene and health care
• decision making and relationship  skill-building
• library facilities
• children’s groups
• Livelihood training and opportunities
• Self Help Groups

NirmilJyothi – Centre for children in beggary and rag picking

Located at Gittikhadan, this Centre provides opportunity for over 250 children to break the cycle of beggary. It provides:

• hygiene and health programs
• TB related support and health promotion
• school work support and tuition
• life skills training
• recreational activities
• library
• kindergarten and playroom
• supplementary nutrition
• vocational training for young women in beauty therapy, tailoring, painting, candle making, hand bag making, liquid detergent and craft
• Self Help Groups and Income Generation Activities

CHILDLINE

CHILDLINE is India’s first 24 hour, toll free, emergency phone outreach service for children in need of care and protection linking them to long-term services for their care and rehabilitation. Any child and concerned adult can call on 1098 and access the CHILDLINE service any time of the day or night. CHILDLINE works collaboratively with various government departments and non-government organizations.  ICID functions as a support organization in Nagpur city.

In this role ICID provides fieldwork and linkages for CHILDLINE in endemic areas where children in need are most likely to be found. It promotes awareness of CHILDLINE in these areas and follows-up referred cases. It also conducts a monthly open house where children who are using the CHILDLNE service are given the opportunity to share their issues and concerns.

CHILDLINE is a project funded by the Ministry of Women and Child Development, Government of India.

Manini  – for increased economic independence among disadvantaged rural women through sustainable livelihood opportunities

The Manini program provides women from economically disadvantaged backgrounds with the opportunity to create sustainable livelihoods. About 200 women from rural communities in Umred Taluka, Nagpur district are engaged in activities that promote self-sustainability.

The components of this program include:

Motivational and sensitization meetings

Group formation

Promotion of Health and Nutrition Garden:

Health Check-up camps

Kitchen/Vegetable Garden

Skill Building:

Training in Home Management

Training in Social and Legal protection:

Livestock Upkeep Training

Livestock Upkeep Programs:

D-worming and Vaccination of the Live Stock

Promotion of Livelihood intervention (Goat Rearing)

The project is supported by Dare2Dream Foundation, South Australia.

Urja – for empowerment of the socio-economically disadvantaged urban women through sustainable livelihood options

The project aims to contribute to the empowerment of the socio-economically disadvantaged urban women, including adolescent female population. The project is being implemented through 3 Centres namely Pardi, Yashodhranagar and Chikali that cover about 10 slum communities having a population of about 12000 in Nagpur city. This initiative will help i) the women to earn their livelihood with dignity and sustain their lives; ii) to empower the adolescent girls to protect themselves from all forms of exploitation and make right choices and decisions for their lives; and iii) to ensure that the vulnerable households of the target groups to have the ability to send their children to school and retain them in formal education. The activities in the project include formation of groups of the beneficiaries, Project Steering Committee (PSC), and Project Management Committee (PMC); imparting vocational skills and provision of livelihood opportunities; socio-legal training; reproductive and general health education; and observance of the National Girl Child Day and the International Day of the Girl Child. Presently 75 women and adolescent girls are undergoing training in garment making.

The project is supported by Dare2Dream Foundation, South Australia.

Project Bloom

The project strives to rescue children and female youth from the exploitative, abusive and other disadvantaged situations such as street and pavement dwelling, work places, children in begging, picking waste material and neglected children and provide a protective environment where a child finds a safe, dignified and child-friendly atmosphere including their rehabilitation with their families.

This is done through various programs such as street outreach, formation of children’s groups, counselling, life skill education, educational support and sponsorship, provision of safe shelter for children in need, organizing child right awareness and advocacy programs.

The Dominican Friars work in collaboration with Dominican Sisters and Dominican Laity at two levels with a team of  social workers and volunteers in Nagpur district.

Work with children who are already living on the streets with adequate and necessary support:

• Providing street based support, protection, rescue, rehabilitation and integration (with family), maintaining street presence through volunteers, awareness creation among children about the risks and dangers on the streets.
• Residential care (counselling, food, accommodation, education, life skill development, livelihood training and opportunity, and preparing them for family life). Children are referred to Yuvajyothi or other homes for children

Work with economically and socially disadvantaged families whose children may turn to the streets, :

• Sensitization visits to the families, life skill education to children in the families, child rights awareness in communities and schools, interventions at the school level in order to retain children in the schools, networking and advocacy.
• Livelihood training and opportunities for women from disadvantaged families community based centres.

Adolescent Education

The program focuses on adolescent girls who are vulnerable to exploitation in 10 slum areas of Nagpur city.

Activities include:

Regular visits to over families of the adolescent girls and holding interactive sessions with parents and adults of the families

Group formation

Group meetings with adolescent girls

Life Skill Education to the adolescent girls

Training of adolescent girls focused on trafficking and grooming process, sexual abuse and exploitation, risk factors in the adolescent stage, consent issues and HIV infections etc.

Motivation and support for mainstream schooling for dropout adolescent girls

Educational Support

ICID provides educational support for children who come from economically disadvantaged families. ICID provides children and young people with practical supports such as uniforms, shoes, note books, school bags and stationary. Over 250 children are supported annually.

Summer Camps

ICID camps provide children from slum communities with the opportunity to develop social skills, build self-esteem and confidence and promote creative expression through the facilitation of a variety of recreational and educational activities.  Over 300 children between the ages of 8-16 years participate annually.

Life Skill Education  

ICID provides life skill education to the children and young people within slum communities and selected Government schools with focus on 10 core life skills developed by the World Health Organization (WHO) – self-awareness, empathy, critical thinking, creative thinking, decision making, problem solving, effective communication, interpersonal relationship, coping with stress and coping with emotions. Over 200 children benefit from the program annually.

Safe Childhood: Breaking the silence and preventing incidences of Child Sexual Exploitation (CSE)

Activities

• Formation of children’s groups and training in safety lessons against CSE
• Provision of preventive information and increasing the knowledge and life skills of children to understand CSE and appropriately report the same in time
• Awareness and sensitization on CSE in communities
• Strengthening families by helping the parents to understand their children’s issues and learn to help their children to be free from sexual exploitation
• Provision of nurturing support by visiting the at-risk families at home and ensure family counseling and parenting support
• Training of collaborators/ teachers, counselors and others on child sexual exploitation and enhance their capacity to effectively prevent and protect children from sexual exploitation
• Dialogue and networking with schools and Government and Civil Society Organizations

BalManch

BalManch is a forum for children who come from the slum communities in Nagpur city. This program supports children to identify and address personal, family and community issues. By actively participating in this forum, participants learn to develop problem solving and decision making skills. BalManch members has an allocated role within the team. BalManch meetings occur weekly. Meetings focus on finding sustainable solutions to social issues affecting them in their community and undertaking tasks that deal with such problems.

Health awareness and check-up camps

These camps are organized by ICID in collaboration with other NGOs. Children are given biomedical examinations and provided with medications when necessary. Children are also provided with health education and information during these check-up sessions. Over 300 young people and women benefit from this program annually.

COVID-19 Response

Community Kitchen – distribution of cooked food – Over 110000 meals cooked and distributed to displaced migrants, migrants traveling by trains, people in slum communities, and other needy people
Provision of grocery items – Over 975 kits have been distributed to needy families
Awareness creation related to COVID -19 – prevention, hygiene, social distancing and isolation and other aspects in our work areas (slum communities)
Purchase of medicines – to the needy ailing persons
Psychological support – counseling to quarantined people